皇冠体育app

By Chen Jia (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-23 07:35

皇冠体育app's political stability and fast economic development have made it a desirable destination for illegal immigrants, officials with the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection said Thursday.

"Between October 1 and Thursday, we seized 83 illegal immigrants, which is a record for us since our department was set up in 1998," Li Junzhou, the vice section chief of the station's repatriation department, told 皇冠体育app Daily.

In comparison, frontier guards caught only 14 illegal passport holders during the same period last year. They caught 22 of them in 2005, Li said.

The frontier station has estimated that the full-year figure for this year would be two to three times higher than the corresponding figure for last year.

Li said the illegal immigrants seized between October 1 and Thursday were from Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South America. Some 92 percent of them were from Africa and had had entered 皇冠体育app aboard Ethiopian Airlines or 皇冠体育app Southern Airplanes flights. The two airlines started operating between Africa and 皇冠体育app last year.

Li said the country's political stability and fast economic development had inspired more and more foreign people to travel here to search for work.

"These people are likely to bring back a good image of 皇冠体育app and encourage more foreigners to come to 皇冠体育app, particularly those from developing countries," he said.

To ease the entry process for legitimate foreign visitors while making it less easy for people to sneak into the country using fake documents, frontier officials last month adopted a Swiss immigration system called DOCU Expert. It allows immigration officials to check the validity of e-passports, which are equipped with microchips containing information about the passport-holder.

The United States asked 20 visa-free countries to adopt e-passport technology after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Japan and Singapore were among the Asian countries that did so, Li said.

"To ease entries into 皇冠体育app for foreign guests, a group of frontier inspectors working for the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection have been trained to double check suspicious passports in just 10 minutes," he said.

He said 皇冠体育app has always dealt strictly with people who attempt to enter the country using false travel documents.